Assessor outlines 2026 budget increase tied to software conversion, licensing and training costs

The county assessor’s office presented its 2026 budget request Thursday, telling the Board of County Commissioners the request includes a substantial one‑time conversion charge for a new, integrated property valuation and management platform and higher recurring licensing fees for mapping and valuation software. The office said the changes reflect a multi‑year migration that will temporarily increase IT and software spending while reducing duplicated work across older systems.

The assessor’s presentation centered on a shift from multiple historic programs to a single vendor product referred to in the packet as “Catalyst.” The assessor said the vendor’s first‑year conversion cost in the packet is about $101,000; ongoing annual hosting and licensing costs are expected to be substantially lower, roughly $30,000 plus an additional cost table license (Marshall & Swift) that the office estimated at about $8,000 in the first year. The office also budgeted for continued, possibly duplicate, costs during the migration year because some older systems must remain active until conversion and verification are complete.

The office briefed commissioners on several specific software items. It listed ProVal — the current valuation software — at roughly $12,000 for the Canvas module in 2026; the assessor said that cost may be unnecessary after full migration. Mapping software provider Esri is moving customers from desktop to cloud user types; the assessor said the office’s three main user licenses are moving from about $300 per license to about $500 per license under the vendor’s new cloud pricing. Beacon and Pictometry contract lines were budgeted with a 3% contract increase; the assessor said combined subscriber and partner revenue from those services historically returns about $16,000 to the general fund but that the office prefers to budget full gross costs on the expenditure side.

On staffing, the assessor said software that streamlines workflows reduces the need for additional employees; the office is currently below recommended staffing by national standards for parcel count, but the assessor argued the software will replace roughly “half a person, or more” of workload. The assessor also kept a modest contingency for temporary office coverage during conferences or school periods and preserved a small repairs and maintenance line for emergency computer repairs.

The assessor described migration risks and timeline constraints: data formats and older sketching stored as images (rather than data strings) complicate automated transfer and may require manual verification and data entry. The office said they hold monthly meetings with the vendor, maintain a migration “sandbox” for testing, and expect the conversion could take anywhere from 18 months to several years depending on data issues; the previous migration the assessor referenced took about seven years.

The assessor additionally requested membership in the International Association of Assessing Officers to reduce per‑person continuing‑education costs and noted increases in workshop and school fees that drive modest travel and training increases in the budget.

Commissioners asked for clarification about software ownership, cancellation rights and the timing of conversion payments; the assessor said the county owns the data in the legacy system and that some subscription contracts are annual and payable in December, allowing, in some cases, mid‑year cancellation if migration completes earlier. The office said it prefers to budget conservatively for 2026 to avoid mid‑year shortfalls and to preserve uninterrupted access to valuation tools required for certification and notices.

The discussion included operational trade‑offs: the assessor said the integrated product will eliminate double entry, reduce manual work and be cheaper than hiring multiple additional staff and that the migration costs should fall out of the budget over two to three years if the conversion finishes on schedule.

Ending: The assessor left the budget lines for software and training in place for 2026 and asked the commission to consider the migration strategy as an investment that will lower staffing pressure over time; commissioners pressed staff to follow up on detailed contract terms and the expected timing of recurring costs after the first conversion year.